ALOO GOBI: IT DOESN’T GET MORE PUNJABI THAN THIS
By GM for The Planet Food
When anyone says‘aloo gobi’ the first image that comes to my mind is the scene from the movie‘Bend it like Beckham’ where the mother is bickering to her daughters about noteven knowing anything about their culture especially how to cook ‘allu gobi’. Her enunciation of the words really makeme laugh each time I remember that film even today.
Anyway Beckham andmy older brother (no he’s not a footballer or even a sportsman for that matter),both are reminders of this simple vegetable dish, albeit for different reasons.For my brother, it doesn’t get more Indian than this, and of course, it has twoof favourite vegetables - aloo (potatos) and gobi (cauliflower). It is funnyhow each time he comes down to India, amongst the first few foods he demandsfor always is aloo gobi (which is strange because the rest of his list doesn’treally include vegetarian food).
While I preparea much simpler version of the dish (I prefer my vegetables much lighter interms of oil and seasoning as compared to my mum and her side of the family), Ido like to retain the fresh crunchiness of the vegetable as kept by my mum inher dish.
Recipe:
Time: 20- 25 minutes
Ingredients
• Phool gobi/cauliflower:1 medium sized sliced into equal sized pieces
• Aloo/potatoes:2 medium sized sliced
• Onion: 1medium sized, finely chopped
• Ginger: 1/2inch
•Garlic: 2cloves, crushed
• Kashmiri redchili powder: ½ tsp (adjust as per your capacity of heat)
• Turmericpowder: ¼ tsp
• Corianderpowder: ¾ tsp
• Oil: 2 Tbsp
•Salt: As pertaste
Method
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Rinse and peel potatoes, and cutthem into long cylindrical pieces
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Dice the onion finely
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Cut the gobi/cauliflower intomedium length wise cylindrical pieces to match the Potato pieces
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Heat the oil in a pan and addthe chopped onions and sauté till they become pink and add the ginger-garlicpaste.
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Stir and sauté for about 3-4minutes till the raw aroma of the ginger and garlic goes away and the mixturestarts turning golden
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Add the coriander powder, thenin a few seconds, the red chilli powder and Turmeric powder
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Stir and sauté for about 5 - 6minutes on a medium flame
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Now add the cauliflower andpotatoes. Stir them in well with the masala paste and then season with salt andsauté till the potato and cauliflower pieces each has a little crisp patches
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Cover and cook for about 3-4minutes or till veggies are half done ensuring that they are not breaking
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Remove the lid and stir verygently (so pieces don’t break) and let it cook on small gas flame for another 2minutes
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Then turn the gas off andgarnish the Aloo Gobi with chopped coriander leaves
Tip: Serve AlooGobi with hot chapattis
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